Crest of Fallen Stars

Session 12

Leaving the Abbey with a sense of accomplishment our adventurers made their way back to the City of Velprintalar. Upon returning into the city they received a summons from Lord Kithe Dunzen. The party immediately set out to meet with the Lord where upon arrival Lord Dunzen debriefed the party from their recent mission to the Abbey. Further the party discussed the implications of recent events and concerns that Thay was using the pirates of the surrounding areas to distract the Armies of Velprintilar while the Churches were used as insurrection points all along the lands. In the end Lord Dunzen offered the party up to 10,000GP to assist in the party’s idea to unite the Pirates in a joint defense against the Thay.

After the debrief, Lord Dunzen announced to the party that he wished to discuss some unfinished business with the party from their previous encounters in the City. Due to the outstanding deeds and continued contributions to the realm of Aglarond Lord Dunzen offered each member of The Seekers the honor of becoming Knights of the Realm and Lords of Veirin. The party graciously accepted and in the celebrations that followed were thanked by many other Lords and Ladies of the ream. A single event would mar the day, however, as Lord Terindal approached our heroes and offered ill tidings and ill wishes.

After an otherwise warm celebration our heroes retired early and spent the next day resupplying. In the afternoon they set sail to Alphar Island in order to meet one last time with Azla and hopefully to find the Gnome, Flapjaw, who they had recently discovered may be of some use in helping The Kestrel find her wings once again.
….

Upon arriving on Alphar Island after several days the party was surprised to find the island mostly deserted and no commotions to be heard. The last they had been here the Island was a busy Pirate Hub rife with banter, drinking, and… well… pirates. The stillness caused concern and the party decided to scout ahead. Bob of Procampur was given an Invisibility Spell and proceeded to sneak his way into the former camp only to find that it not only had been ransacked, but it was still in the occupancy of an unread pirate raiding party. Thanks to the quick thinking of Willowisp a distraction was created by way of an old Wizard carrying a sack of gold. He manged to corral the majority of the undead into a large open field wherein the party proceeded to lay siege by way of Fireball Spells, once more saving the day.

Bob was the first to arrive at Azla’s tent and proceeded to convince her and Flapjaw that he was not a member of the raiding party. Upon gaining entrance to the fortified structure the party was able to discuss what had transpired in the village. After determining the source of the undead scourge, a dilapidated old structure simply known as “the castle”, the party made camp and worked with Flapjaw to see if he knew anything about getting the Kestrel to Fly once more as they had seen in their visions. Surprisingly Flapjaw knew of a rare crystal, Voranite, that he thought would do the trick as he had worked in years past on similar flying vessels. It was also revealed that the pirates were believed to be in position of his last crystal. A transition of property it would seem during the most recent raid.

With grim determination on their minds and blades in hand our adventurers set out to the ruins in the jungle to find The Castle, and it’s undead leader known as “The King”. Will our Heroes Survive? Will they spend the next session debating strategy instead of doing a damn thing? TUNE IN TO FINDOUT!

Session 11

WIth the strange aberrations that were initially disguised as silent brothers barely defeated, a loud knock came from the Abbey’s main door. The party answered, and found Willowisp a tiefling wizard who claimed to be from a nearby town which had been experiencing strange memory problems. He said he had come to the Abbey to investigate.

After a brief introduction, the party decided to hasten its investigation of the Abbey, Willowisp entow. They met two other Acolytes, a gruff dwarf of few words, and a cheery halfling girl named Korifina.

Both of these acolytes had memory problems, but Korifina seemed enamored with Ser Paulo Dan and his position as a paladin of Tymora. The party discussed having Korifina leave the abbey and go to their ship, which she seemed eager to do, but eventually decided it was better for her safety to stay in the abbey.

Lastly, the party met another acolyte named Midial. He attempted to present himself as a normal acolyte, but seemed nervous somehow, especially when Ser Paulo Dan introduced himself as a Paladin of Tymora. Trusting their instincts, the party pressed Midial, intimidating him to give them information.

Midial claimed that he was just a henchmen hired by Thayan wizards to “keep an eye on” the Abbey. When pressed, he did say that there was an illusory wall in the abbey concealing a door. The party had him take them to the door and open it.

However, upon opening it, Midial tried to rush inside, but was grappled by the quick reflexes of Doren. Inside of the room awaited an ambush of flesh golems and helmed horrors. Midial, turned out to be one of the wizards all along, and he was trying to lure the party into an ambush.

However, grappled as he was by Doren, he could offer little resistance, and after a quick eldritch blast from Zylfaelor and two arrows from Bob of Procampur, he fell motionless.

The party was then able to methodically dispose of the golems and helmed horrors inside the room, with Ser Paulo Dan and Doren blocking the door while everyone else rained down hell from behind them. After the constructs were defeated, the party explored the previously hidden room. They found some non-descript barrels as well as a trapdoor leading into a wine cellar.

Advancing into the wine cellar, the party found several arcane symbols, which Willowisp identified as an enchantment that would affect memory as well as conceal several creatures with illusions. Wanting to uncover any other runes, the party rushed to explore the rest of the cellar, but when the reached the end of the cellar, they found two mages waiting in ambush!

Once the mages were uncovered, strange clockwork abominations appeared from seemingly nowhere. One of the mages immediately struck with a deadly cone of cold, severely damaging Illamin, Ser Paulo Dan, and Bob of Procampur. Bob of Procampur and Ser Paulo Dan struck back, chipping away at the huge clockwork abominations, while Illamin did his best to heal his wounds and retreat, taking a devastating blow from a flesh golem in the process, but keeping his footing.

As the battle raged on, Willowisp summoned a Firegeist that lept up onto the tall wine barrels, bashing its fist into one of the two mages that had attempted to fly up there to escape the fray. At this point though, one of the clockwork abominations planted its mechanical feet and let spew a hellish blast of fire, catching Doren and Illamin. Illamin, overwhelmed from the massive amount of damage he had taken, fell to the ground unconscious.

Doren quickly ran to his side, administering a healing potion while guiding a flaming sphere he had previously summoned to bash into the mage atop the barrels. Next,. Zylfaelor opened a rift into realms unknown and black tentacles shot through, grabbing the two clockwork abominations and strangling the mage who had flew over the barrels to death.

At this point, the tide seemed to turn in the favor of the party, the remaining mage looking more interested in fleeing than fighting, and he dimension doored to the other side of the room. Bob of Procampur though, was not about to let him get away, as he stepped through the mists, right next to the hapless mage.

Catching their breath, the party took stock of their situation and Illamin summoned holy power to dispel the magical runes on the ground. Finally, the party investigated an altar in the room that had turned out to be a huge chest. The chest contained some well organized riches as well as a seal in the shape of a wilted rose with a skull atop it, and several letters written to various Tymoran establishments, with the general theme of telling the recipient to spread chaos and disorder in the church and the surrounding areas.

The wizards defeated, the party ascended back to the main floor of the abbey to find the acolytes and the priests all discussing things in the hall. When they saw the party they happily greeted knew and seemed to remember everything that went on when they were in their “foggy” state. They thanked the party profusely and asked him they could help in any way.

The party asked for aid in researching the light of the Seraph, and over the next 2 days the party and Archivist Randall pored through the library’s tomes and eventually found that their vision of the Light of the Seraph was likely of the realm of Eronia on the plane of Elysium. They also needed a way to make their ship fly and plane shift to reach this place. Archivist Randall didn’t have any advice on making the ship plane shift, but as for flying, he pointed them to a gnome who used to be a Halruuan airship engineer and now resides on Alphar island, Flapjaw.

Finally, the party was able to convince Korifina and Dromglen, acolytes of Tymora to join their budding town of Veirin.

Session 10/11

After receiving a missive from Lord Dunzen telling you to return to Velprintalar you returned, then Lord Dunzen informed the party that Thayan forces are at the Watchwall (the border wall of Aglarond) and he expects it will only be a matter of months before they break through into the Aglarond country side.

Next, Loremaster Tybalt told us that the Simbul is located in an area of the Feywild where time is flowing at an extremely slow rate compared to the prime…meaning that by the time she can even cast plane shift to return, many months will have passed.

Lore Master Tybalt tells you that your investigations into the mystery of the The Kestrel may be Aglarond’s only hope. Lord Kithe Dunzen urges you to continue uncovering its secrets in the hopes that you find a power that can rival Szass Tam.

Finally, you decided to look into the LIght of the Seraph and were guided to the Abbey of Tymora to research your vision. Yet before reaching the Abbey, we encountered a disheveled priest named Priest of Tymora – Porin who said that something is amiss at the Abbey. He complained of not being able to remember things while he was there, and a sneaking feeling that something was missing. He implored us not to go to the Abbey for our own safety, but we told him that we had to press on. Before we left though, Ser Paulo Dan convinced Priest of Tymora – Porin to go to Veirin and serve as the priest there as the previous one no longer lives.

Despite Porin’s warnings, upon arriving at the Abbey of Tymora we found that all appeared to be well. The head bishop greeted us at the door, and several clergy members were going around and performing their daily duties.

As we were performing inspections a Clergy member mentioned that he continually heard rats in his quarters and we went to investigate. Upon investigation we found many book titles from the same author in his room but no signs of rats.

From there we decided to talk to the head librarian who mentioned that many of his books had gone missing but oddly only from a single author. After several minutes of discussion the head librarian seemed to go into a trance and forget everything that had occurred since we had talked to him. Suspecting some sort of memory issue we decided to investigate further by talking to the head bishop who was in the middle of practicing a sermon. The head bishop seemed to also have some kind of memory problem as he greeted the party as if he had never seen them before. Upon talking to the Bishop and attempting to read his notes the party was ambushed by several Flesh Golems, an Eye Abomination, an animated bear trap, and yet more helmed horrors.

After dispatching the threats the adventurer’s continue their search of the Abbey of Tymora… SUNDAY!

Tune in SUNDAY to find out WHO IS ABBY! WHY IS SHEFOLLOWING US! ANDWHYDOESSHEHAVE SO MANYHELMEDHORRORS!?

Session 10

After finishing a brutal fight against the forces of an entity known as The Whisperer the party took the tablet back to Lore Master Tybalt in order to further review the findings. Before reaching the ship we spoke with the Town's Mayor and explained the events of the previous night. After putting the town's woe's to rest we moved back to our ship and set sail for Velprintalar. During the voyage Lore Master Tybalt deciphered the ruins and we were once again transported back to Netherese times. After a swirl of mist and regaining our senses we were greeted by Lord Kelben (Netherese). This time our party was equipped with 5 legendary items; Claw and Fang, Azuri, Durandal wielded by Ser Paulo Dan, Light of the Seraph, and Rod of Eldritch Power. After becoming acquainted with our new abilities we were told to defend the Mythallar. After a grueling fight with an Undead Beholder, several Phaerimm, and Helmed Horrors the party prevailed. After completing this flashback we were returned to our ship and received word by way of a missive requesting the party return to Velprintalar.

Session 9

Veirin initially seemed to be a very nice, quiet town. The party met with the mistress of the local inn, Hilde, and her husband Rikard who welcomed them to their inn with open arms. The party learned that the basement in their vision may very well be the basement of the local church. Hilde cooked them a wonderful meal, and the party happily talked with her and Rikard before turning in for the night.

Just before dawn though, the party was awoken by a horrific scream. Going downstairs to investigate, the party found a bloody arcane circle on the ground, as well as a human corpse…it was Rikard. Shortly after looking at the body though, shadowy fiends began to pour into the room from the circle. The party was able to make short work of them with Illamin filling the room with daylight that weakened the shadow demons.

The fiends defeated, the party resumed investigating the room. They found a note in Rikard’s pocket indicating that he bought a large quantity of meats from the butcher yesterday, as well a hooped earring on the floor that seemed to be Hilde’s and bloody footprints heading out the door.

Using Bob (Master of Puppets)’s mastery of tracking, the party decided to following the trail of bloody footprints, and eventually wound up at an abandoned house. Entering the house, the party saw a grisly scene, Hilde on the floor, her eyes burned out, body cold. Bloody writing on the wall next to her that read:

Right upon reading this, the party began to hear whispers sounding through the air, and felt a horrifying feeling in the pit of their gut. Many members of the party were able to shake off the terror, but some of them could not, and for them, the whispers persisted.

Still not knowing exactly where to go, the party decided to go to the church to see if the tablet was in its basement. In the church, the party heard a creaking coming from above the pews, and when they looked up, they saw the body of the priest hanging from the rafters. A note had fallen from his body onto the floor, and the note read:

Feria…I am sorry. I have stolen your life and laid you to rest in a lie. Let this be my penance. May Tymora forgive me.

The party then searched the basement of the church, and it did indeed look exactly like the one from their vision, with one difference. The tablet was not there.

Still trying to piece together what was happening in the town, the party next decided to visit the butcher and investigate the note they found in Rikard’s pocket. The butcher told them that Rikard came to the butcher yesterday, as he does once every month, to buy a cartload of dried meats and give them out to the elderly and poor of the village.

The butcher also said that Rikard always takes detailed notes of who he delivered food to, and he happened to leave his notes here by mistake. He gave the party the notes to return to Rikard. The notes read:

Still confused, the party decided to check the graveyard, based on the bloody writing they found in the abandoned house. Once there, they started to read the headstones. Most of the names they did not recognize, but they did recognize one.

Tivul Manam, buried 21st Uktar. This seemed odd to them as Rikard said he had met Tivul Manam at the door when he delivered food on the 26th of Uktar. Throwing morality to the wind, the party decided to dig up the grave.

The corpse inside seemed to be a much younger woman, with the distinct look of a beggar, that was wearing a locket. The party opened the locket to find a note:

To my dearest Feria, I will love you always.
Father

This was not Tivul Manam’s body. This was the woman that the priest had apologized to in his suicide note. The party then knew that they need to find go to Tivul Manam’s house, and now. Asking around town, the party quickly discovered that Tivul Manam lived about a half mile out of town, and they headed there post-haste.

Upon arriving at her house, Ser Paulo Dan could immediately sense the presence of a powerful fiend. Girding their loins for the battle, the party called upon whatever divine aid they could muster, Illamin dispelling the whispers from the afflicted of the party, and headed into the house. The house itself, seemed empty, but they did find a hatch leading to the cellar.

In the cellar, they found Tivul Manam. She appeared to be an old woman, but he body moved as if controlled by a puppeteer. Tivul Manam’s body looked up at the party and introduced itself as The Whisperer. The demon said it was amused that the party had tracked it down, but it was no matter for it would just make them easier to dispose of.

As mighty a fiend as The Whisperer was, it could not triumph against the party, as Ser Paulo Dan‘s sword thrust into the body it inhabited and expelled it with a blast of radiant light. The Whisperer’s form now floating in the air said it would return to the Abyss, but warned that the party had seen nothing of its true power.

He, and the other court mages have been furiously working to discover what happened to her, but have not found anything useful as of yet. He further goes on to tell the party that, even though the immediate danger of a Thayan naval invasion has been removed, the queen’s absence could still spell the eventual doom of the country of Aglarond.

The queen herself is an extremely powerful wizard. And it is this power that ultimately keeps Thay, and their lich king Szass Tam at bay. If the queen is removed from the equation, it will only be a matter of time before the Thayans overwhelm the Aglarondi defenses and conquer the country.

Concerned, Kithe Dunzen asks if there is anything that can be done to stop the Thayans in the event that the queen cannot be found. Lore Master Tybalt responds that two years ago, the lore masters of Aglarond had discovered a ship that seemed to be of Netherese origin. The ship seemed to hold some kind of secret, and the lore masters believed that this secret may hold power that would rival even Szass Tam if uncovered.

Upon hearing the words, every member of the party heard a loud ringing in their ears, and felt a pounding headache before the world went black. When light returned to them, they found they were no longer in the ship. They were in what appeared to be a town, but with very strange buildings, unlike anything they had seen before.

Children played in the street, casting spells for amusement, while normal merchants sold all kinds of magical trinkets. After exploring the town for a few minutes, they were met by a man who seemed to know them. He introduced himself as Lord Kelben (Netherese), and with a broad smile told them he was overjoyed to see his friends, and that they could join him to witness the birth of this new city.

Just then though, an ear-piercing crack sounded through the city, and a rift seemed to open in the sky. Strange green worm-like creatures with four legs, and a lamprey like maw poured through the rift. Lord Kelben (Netherese) asked the party to evacuate the town’s inhabitants to the portal stone while he went off the battle the largest of these beings.

The party frantically tried to round up the residents of the town while the worm like creatures shot bolts of lighting and blasts of fire that incinerated any poor soul caught in them. Eventually, the party made their way to the portal stone with several citizens of the town, but found it was guarded by several of the beasts.

The party rushed into assault the creatures, but they all turned out to be rather adept magic users. The ensuing battle was hard fought, the creatures shooting lightning bolts through several members of the party. But the party eventually prevailed and started to usher the townspeople through the portal.

Upon doing this though, the party once again felt that horrible headache, and the world went black. In the darkness, the party saw a vision of a stone tablet in some kind of basement, and heard one word echoing in their heads:

Veirin

When the party finally awoke, they were back in the ship with a very worried Lore Master Tybalt. They told him what happened, and he suggested they confer with Kithe Dunzen to decide their next moves. So the party headed back to the palace to meet with Kithe Dunzen.

Back in the palace, the party once again relayed their story. Kithe Dunzen said he knew of Veirin. It is a small fishing village not far from Velprintalar. He thought that somehow the party is now entangled in the mystery of the ship, and he asked if they would be willing to follow the lead they have been given.

The party accepted, and prepared to sail to Veirin. The journey to Veirin was not without incident however. The party noticed that a strange yellow orb was floating above them in their ship, which Doren identified as a scrying spell. The orb faded after Zylfaelor used magic to cause an extremely loud and annoying laugh to sound out right next to it.

A short while after this though, undead assaulted the ship, but the party was able to easily fight them off. After this, the party arrived in the town of Veirin.

Session 7

A shocked priest stares into the slain bishop’s office, the party tries to explain what happened, but before they can, another priest storms into the Bishop’s office flanked by several guards shouting “Murder! Arrest them!” The aggressive priest introduces himself as Brother Zor and demands that the party be arrested for the murder of the Bishop.

It looked like the party may be imprisoned at this point, falsely accused of murdering the bishop. But thanks to some persuasive dialog from Zylfaelor and Ser Paulo Dan, the guards decided it better to figure out more of what is going on before just arresting the party. All this talk of demons is too unsettling to just treat this as a normal murder.

As Brother Zor remains in the church sneering, the guards escort the party to the council chamber of Velprintalar where the party meets Kithe Dunzen, a Lord of Velprintalar and its master of shadows. The party explains the scenario to Kithe Dunzen who confides that his organization has been watching the bishop for some time, and suspected he may be involved in some kind of nefarious plot.

After reading the note from Bishop’s office, the party is concerned that the massive monument of Tymora is somehow involved in whatever the Bishop was about, they confide this to Kithe Dunzen and he urges that they go to this monument post haste. After a brief walk into the Merchant’s district of the city, the party approaches the monument.

The monument is guarded by mercenaries that are not in the employ of the city itself. Their captain refuses to let the party close to the monument. But as this conversation is going on, Ser Paulo Dan notices that the other mercenary guards seem to be behaving strangely. Using his divine senses, he discovers that they are actually undead under an illusion.

The party then leaps to get the jump on the undead guards before they have a chance to prepare, Illamin bursting forth with holy light that causes most of the undead to flee in fear. The party easily dispatches of the mercenary guard captain and the remaining undead, but some of the undead escaped and screams can be heard in the distance.Kithe Dunzen urges the party to uncover what is hidden in the monument as he races off to protect the city from the undead.

After some investigation, the party finds an illusory wall on the outer edge of the monument’s base, that leads to a door. Opening the door, they find a room that has some kind of security measure where the “symbol of our lord” must be presented before the inner door will open. The party presents a wilted rose and a skull, then the lock on the door clicks, admitting the party.

In the next room, the party sees Brother Zor from the church! He is standing over what appears to be an illusory scale model of the city, taking measurements to ensure that a massive gem at the top of the Tymora monument is directed perfectly at the docks of Velprintalar.

Not wanting to give us this opportunity to take him by surprise, the party charge into battle, cutting down the hapless wizard Zor before he can escape. With Zor dead though, the party is left in a room with five doors and no idea how to proceed. As they contemplate their next step a strange gnomish looking entity appears in the center of the room.

He introduces himself as Enimorn the Superfluous(!) and says he was bound to this monument, but the binding is weakening. He offers to tell the party what the purpose of the monument is, and how to manipulate it, if they can solve his riddles.

Most of his riddles are ridiculously easy, though one was mildly challenging. The party solved them with ease. Enimorn then tells the party that the monument is actual a massive piece of magical artillery, built here to destroy the Aglarondi navy in preparation for a Thayan naval invasion.

He says that the monument can be controlled using magical devices in the control room, which in through one of the doors in the room the party currently stands. However, the door is locked, and to unlock it, the party needs to grab an elemental crystal from each of the other four rooms bordering the central chamber and place it in the appropriate container.

The party then proceeds to tackle the four elemental rooms. Air and water were easily surmounted, Ser Paulo Dan deftly walking across platforms in a sea of infinite sky to grab the air crystal and Bob (Master of Puppets) swimming against a monstrous current to grab the water crystal.

Earth was slightly more hazardous as Bob (Master of Puppets) entered the earth room, not seeing any enemies, but was ambushed by several Bullette’s. With the party’s help, he was able to pry the earth crystal free, and escape before the Bullette’s murdered him though.

Finally, the party entered the fire chamber, which was searing hot and contained several hostile creatures of fire. Right when the party was about to take the crystal however, a familiar face appeared out of thin air in the room, Shahara – The Efreeti.

Shahara – The Efreeti was angry that the party got away unscathed from the first deal she made with them. And eager to make a more…costly deal for the fire crystal. As she was conversing with the party though, she suddenly looked at Illamin, interest in her eyes. She called him “Heaven Touched” and said his soul would fetch a fine price in the city of brass.

She said that the terms of their deal had changed, and demanded the party surrender Illamin, or she would incinerate them all. After the party refused to do this, she took out a magic crystal from her clothing and aimed it at Illamin. Illamin could feel his soul being ripped from his body, but right when it seemed his soul would tear free from its mortal coil, a blinding light erupted from him, stunning everyone in the room, including the Efreeti witch.

Shahara – The Efreeti looked up at Illamin from the ground, fear now in her eyes and uttered the words “What are you?” in a shaky voice before shifting away. With the Efreeti gone, the party was able to retrieve the fire crystal and escape from the fire room without too much trouble.

All the crystals gathered, the party placed them in their respective receptacles, and the door to the control room clicked open. Rushing into the control room, the party saw several elementals set up to guard the room. The party drew their weapons and entered the fray once again.

As the party battled the elementals, Doren noticed a book on a desk inside the room. The book contained instructions on how to “unbind” the elementals. Using his arcane knowledge Doren was able to deal massive damage to the elementals, killing some.

The stalwart earth elemental however, could not be so easily unbound. And it struck Bob (Master of Puppets) with its massive fist, knocking him unconscious. Bob (Master of Puppets) however, is not so easily subdued. His eyes snapped back to consciousness in just a second’s time, and he sprung up, delivering a perfect blow to the earth elemental with his scimitar and separated the rocks binding it together. The earth elemental fell to rubble at Bob (Master of Puppets)’s feet.\

The elementals vanquished, the party began to examine the control devices in the room using Enimorn’s instructions. They noticed that they were able to move the scale model to other places, to target the statue farther out. And experimenting with this, they were able to locate the Thayan fleet that was set to invade the city.

The party aimed the statue at this Thayan fleet, instead of the Aglarondi fleet. Once they were sure of their aim, they triggered the statue to fire. A deafening boom and earthshattering vibrations spread through the statue as it discharged its energy. The whole structure began to crumble, and the party barely escaped before the ceiling came down on their heads.

Outside of the monument, the party found a concerned Kithe Dunzen. They quickly relayed to him what happened, and he thanked them profusely for their help. Their conversation was short lived however, as a guard ran up to the party shortly after they exited and told them that “The Queen is missing!”

Session 6

As we last left off, the party had reached the mouth of the sea cave, but The Kestrel was nowhere in sight! Upon searching the area however, the party did notice an arrow on the floor of the cave with a note tied to it. The note read:

_We were discovered, we are fleeing to the east. We hope to shake our pursuer and return for you.

Not wanting to sit on their laurels, the party decided to take the lifeboat out and scout to the east. With just a bit of searching, they found two ships, one that appeared to be The Kestrel docked on a pier not too far from the sea cave. The party decided that it would be best to wait until nightfall and then slowly row to The Kestrel and perhaps steal it back, avoiding detection. They prayed that their crew was still on board.

As planned, the party silently approached and boarded The Kestrel, but found it to be moored to the pier by several ropes, as well as a few enemy pirates on the deck of the ship. Trying to end the pirates and free the ship quickly, the party took the enemy pirates by surprise. But before they could dispose of them all, one of them blew a horn, sounding the alarm.

At this point, pirates began to swarm the pier from the shore. The party frantically fought pirates as they boarded the ship, and tried to cut the moorings tying it to the pier. The fight was terrible, pirates came from all angles, some of them laying down volleys of arrows upon the party. Illamin worked furiously to keep the party alive with his healing, and the rest of the party desperately fought the seemingly endless onslaught of pirates. Both Ser Paulo Dan and Bob (Master of Puppets) fell during the battle, and when all hope seemed lost, Doren sliced through the last mooring, Zylfaelor raised the anchor, and the ship began to sail away, no longer being tied down. The few enemy pirates remaining on the ship, being cut off from their comrades now, laid down their arms and surrendered.

The battle was won, but not without a heavy cost. Ser Paulo Dan lay unconscious, but breathing. Bob (Master of Puppets) however, was still, his heart stopped, his life gone. Illamin rushed to Bob’s side and calling upon all the holy power he could muster, he forced his dead companion’s soul back into his body.

Battered, bruised, but victorious, the party returned to Alphar Island to see Azla and inform her of what happened.

Back in Alphar Island, the party met with Azla and told her the tale. She was overjoyed and impressed with the party’s performance. Granting them free access to her shipwright to refinish their ship and hang white sails, as well as giving them a pennant to hang from their mast signifying that they were under her protection.

The party rested and recovered in Alphar island and then headed out with both ships in the morning, destination the city of Velprintalar, capital of Aglarond. The sea journey was blessedly uneventful. Some pirate ships approaching The Kestrel, but then turning away when they could spot Azla’s pennant flying from their mast.

As the party approached Velprintalar, they noticed a massive statue of the Goddess Tymora dominating the city’s skyline. It appeared to be made of gold, and seemed to still have scaffolding around it, perhaps not completed yet, the party could not help but be stunned by its grandeur.

Arriving at Velprintalar harbor though, gave a far different impression. The streets reeked of abject poverty. Nearly skeletal peasants lay huddled against buildings, and the party even witnessed a man steal a piece of bread from a child. Acting quickly, Ser Paulo Dan stopped the man and asked him why he would do such a thing. The man retorted why should that boy get to eat while my boy starves?

Struck by the tragedy of the situation, Ser Paulo Dan gave the man some of his own food and gold and released him. He then went back to the child who had been robbed, and did the same for him. The party then asked the would-be bread robber how things had gotten so bad in the city.

He told them that the wealthier merchants would always donate gold to the church of Tymora. The church would then come and give food to the poor. But that all stopped once the huge statue began being built. Not only that, the church brought in labor from the outside to build the statue, putting several of the peasants out of a job.

Infuriated and curious to find out what kind of madness has possessed the church, the party ventured further into the town. Their search did not take long however, as a priest of Tymora soon stopped them and told them that Bishop Stram Wenkoff wished to talk with them about the donations they gave to the poor. The party readily accepted the invitation, and the priest led them to an ostentatious cathedral.

Before letting them in though, the priest insisted that the party all swear an oath that they will do no violence while in the cathedral walls. The party however, was able to convince that they should not have to swear the oath, as they had among them a holy paladin and a man of the cloth, that should be enough for the priest to trust them.

Admitted to the cathedral, the party proceeded to the bishop’s office. Upon entering the office, the party immediately noticed the uncharacteristically ornate nature of the room. Beautiful paintings adorned the walls, and cherubic statues of gold and platinum flanked the pathway to the bishop’s Desk.

The bishop heartily welcomed the party and informed them that they should not donate any gold to the poor. Even though it may seem cruel now, the bishop is convinced that his great plan to invest all the donations into the statue of Tymora will bring Tymora’s light to the city, freeing it of poverty for eternity.

Despite the bishop’s apparent sincerity, Ser Paulo Dan, as a devout Paladin of Tymora could feel the lie in his words. He, and the party verbally rebuked the bishop for the abuse of his position. The bishop initially tried to convince the party that he had no nefarious intent, but when it became clear they weren’t accepting his story, he turned to violence.

The room suddenly took on a dark pallor, and demonic entities became to pour into the room from a newly opened portal. The party began to battle, Illamin, summoning a burst of daylight which banished the darkness, as one of the demons ambled over to a church organ in the room and began to play a dark melody. The demons seemed empowered by this melody, so the party began to focus their efforts on the demonic organist.

Zylfaelor blasted several holes into the organist, who fell motionless, while Ser Paulo Dan stepped through the mists to the bishop and cut him down with a thunderous smite, crackling with divine energy. Demons were still poring into the room though, so Doren ran over to the organ in hopes of finding some way of stopping them.

Doren found two sheets of music by the organ, written in infernal. One labeled “Summon” and one labeled “Banish.” Doren hurriedly played the music labeled “Banish,” which rung out in a pure melody. As the power of the song hit the room, the demons material forms began to unravel, and the portal slammed shut. The dark energy of the room dispelled, and the bishop slain, the party easily dispatched the remaining demons.

As the party caught their breath after the battle, they noticed a note tucked into a book in the bishop’s desk. It read:

Give the poor nothing and prevent others from assisting them. Sew disorder in the city.
Pour all of your donations into building the monument exactly to our specifications. Do this, and my power will be yours.

The note had the same wilted rose with a skull on top wax seal as the note found in Wendall’s room.

Just then though, the priest who had let the party in initially walked into the office, alarmed by the noise. Seeing the gruesome scene, the party’s blades covered with blood, demonic corpses littering the floor, the bishop slain. He simply looked at the party in shock and spoke in a hushed voice, “What have you done?”

Session 5

The party set off in The Kestrel towards Bricin Island and Wendall’s base. On the way there, they noticed the archer they captured previously doing something suspicious. Upon investigating, they found he was attempting the send a message via a bird he had somehow concealed! Zylfaelor rushed to stop him, firing an Eldritch blast straight through the archer. But by the time the archer fell, the bird was off.

Undaunted, the party continued to the sea cave that Flapjaw told them about. They reached it with no further interruptions, and sailed into the cave on their lifeboat.

The party quickly noticed that the cave was not uninhabited. Discarded bones, and other signs of some bestial life in the cave abounded. Bob (Master of Puppets) stealthily snuck forward and spotted several large fish-like humanoids in the next chamber of the cave, he identified them as Kuo-Toa and Sahuagin, both very hostile. The party resolved that the only way forward was to fight, and they planned out their tactics for the battle.

Luring the creatures in the narrow passageway between the two chambers of the cave, the party was able to easily dispatch the fish creatures, Ser Paulo Dan downing several with holy smites from his sword. The party then began to venture deeper into the cave.

After a fairly long walk, the party once again noticed signs of life, deep in the cave. Two demonic hyena-like humanoids gnawed on bones near a pool of water at what appeared to be the end of the cave. The party caught them by surprise, and though they wielded putrid magics, the party was able to defeat them, but the party now appeared to be at the end of the cave with only a pool of water there.

The party considered for a while and then eventually decided to swim into the pool of water. What they found was that the pool went under what appeared to be the cave’s wall, and then emerged into another pool, with a bucket tied to a rope that proceeded up a long shaft. Surmising this was the well, the party carefully climbed up the shaft to find themselves in what appeared to be a store room.

Blessedly, no one was in the store room, so the party stealthily left the storeroom and continued down a hall in the ruins undetected. The hall led to an open door, which the party found to be Wendall’s bedroom containing a strange arcane magic circle and Wendall himself who was currently very actively engaged in reading a book at his desk.

Using the element of surprise, Ser Paulo Dan stepped through the mist right next to Wendall and grappled him. Ser Paulo Dan demanded Wendall surrender, but Wendall only smiled, took a knife from his belt, cut his own hand and threw the blood onto the magic circle.

Demons of shadow began to emerge and assaulted the party. Wendall and his demons proved to be dangerous opponents, inflicting massive damage upon the party. But thanks to Illamin’s healing, and Ser Paulo Dan terrifying one of the dark creatures with his holy power, the party survived the fight and defeated Wendall.

However, even though Wendall had been defeated, the ruins were still full of pirates, and one of the shadow demons had fled, surely causing a stir. Some of the party decided to stay in Wendall’s room searching for clues and trying to dispel whatever evil magic existed in the arcane circle, while the rest of the party rushed to the store room where the well was to try to barricade the door.

Within just a few moments, pirates began trying to entire the room, but Ser Paulo Dan and Doren had barricaded it with barrels from the store room, as well as bracing it with their own strength. Meanwhile, Zylfaelor and Illamin worked furiously to dispel the demonic magic circle in Wendall’s room and find any clues as to what he had been about, while Bob (Master of Puppets) began to start a fire in the store room designed to give them a smoke screen for their escape down the well.

Just as Zylfaelor and Illamin managed to dispel the magic circle, the pirates burst through the door, and the party began to flee down the well from whence they came. Thanks to the smokescreen from the fire, the pirates had no idea where they went, and the party escaped back into the sea cave.

Once the party had walked a safe distance away from the well’s entry point, they looked over what they found in Wendall’s base. Of particular note was a piece of paper that read:

Sew chaos, show no mercy to your prey, bring down the Navy of Aglarond upon the Pirate Isles and this power shall be yours.

At the bottom of this paper was a wax seal in the form of a wilted rose with a skull on top of it. Doren recognized the artistic styling of this seal as Thayan, though he wasn’t exactly sure what it meant.

Exhausted, the party decided to rest for the night in the sea cave, and then head back to the ship after they woke. However, when they finally reached the mouth of the sea cave, the ship was gone!

Upon Bob (Master of Puppets)‘s return, the party investigated the ship that was docked at Irkang’s base. The ship appeared similar to a Caravel, but the style of it was different than anything the party had seen before. It also appeared to have several modifications from the pirates to make it seaworthy. It was also painted pure black and had black sails, clearly marking it as a pirate vessel.

Inside of the ship, the party found some strange writing in the ship’s hold. It was in the Draconic script, but it was not Draconic in language, and no one in the party could read it. Christening the ship The Kestrel and dismissing this mystery for another time, the party set off on The Kestrel’s maiden voyage.

Once they were on the water, some of the sailors from the original sunken trade ship expressed that they were not cut out for life in the pirate isles, and asked if the party could take them to Aglarond as originally planned. While Captain Martyn Myrrin told the party he was willing to serve as the ship’s Captain so long as he could remain in the sea that he loves.

Knowing that their ship would be attacked on sight by any respectable Navy due to its obvious pirate colors. The party set off for Alphar Island, an island known to Bob (Master of Puppets) as the base of Azla, one of the more noble pirate lords in the Pirate Isles. The party hoped to have their ship refinished and obtain white sails.

On their way to Alphar island however, the party noticed another ship tailing them in the night. A few moments after that, a flaming skull floated to The Kestrel and informed the party that they were now all property of Thay, and they must surrender or die. The party of course did not choose to surrender, and upon expressing their defiance, several Tentacled ghoul-like (Tentaghouls) undead climbed their way onto the ship.

Unphased, the party drew their weapons and assaulted the undead. As the undead advanced, Illamin raised his symbol and holy light burst forth from his form, terrifying the flame skull and some of the other tentaghouls who fled into the sea. The rest of the undead were easily dispatched by the rest of the party.

After defeating the undead, the party decided to pursue to vessel which was tailing them. And while the mysterious vessel tried to flee, it was no match for The Kestrel which sailed close enough to it for the party to shoot the enemy vessel with the Kestrel’s harpoon.

Manning the harpoon gun, and assisted by Zylfaelor, Bob (Master of Puppets) shot a harpoon so true that the party could swear they heard a sickening thunk has it hit home. Harpooned as it was, the enemy vessel could no longer escape and The Kestrel closed to boarding distance.

As the party approached though, they noticed a figure of a man, who appeared to be some kind of mage, impaled by the harpoon onto the ship’s main mast! They also noticed a hostile water elemental on the ship. Without the help of the mage though, the water elemental stood little chance against the party and was quickly slain.

Searching the ship, the party found several slaves manacled in the lower decks. The ship appeared to be a Thayan slaver ship, manned just by a single mage, undead, and summoned creatures. The party decided to take the ship and the slaves to Alphar island with them. Offering the slaves freedom if they wished it, or the opportunity to join the crew of The Kestrel.

Finally, the party’s two ships arrived at Alphar Island. Their ship was soon spotted by one of the dock hands who recognized it as Irkang’s old ship. He told the party that Azla would be interested in seeing them if they did indeed defeat Irkang. The party decided to follow the dock hand and see what Azla had the say.

The party was led to the largest house in the small pirate settlement of Alphar Town, and shown to Azla’s quarters. Azla seemed impressed that the party had defeated Irkang, and asked if they would be willing to help her with a problem. She told them that if they helped her, she would give them access to the only shipwrights on the island, whom she kept under tight control.

The party agreed to hear Azla out. Azla explained to the party that piracy was, first and foremost, a business. And as a business woman, she takes care to ensure that she doesn’t antagonize the navies of the countries surrounding the pirate isles to bring their wrath down upon them.

However, a certain other pirate lord has been committing several atrocities, murdering entire crews, sending the heads of merchants back to their home cities, etc. This pirate lord, Wendall the Pitiless is beginning to bring the attention of the navy of Aglarond down upon the pirate isles.

She asks the party to stop him, using any method they choose. Accepting this task, the party asked Azla where they could learn of Wendall’s whereabouts as well as any other useful information. She winced as she told them of a certain gnome in Alphar Town who knows just about everything there is about the Pirate Isles, she said his name is Flapjaw, he frequents the tavern, and they would know him when they see him.

Arriving at the tavern, the party noticed that there was one table that was completely empty except for one gnome who, despite the fact that he was alone, was steadily talking, telling a myriad of tales to his ale. Approaching the gnome, he looked up at the party and boisterously welcomed them, still talking nonstop, he told the party of many of his great stories, such as when he was dicing and rolled TWOSIXES!!

The party surmised this must be Flapjaw, and after tolerating at least two hours of his stories, they were able to extract some information from him about Wendall. Specifically, that Wendall’s base was on the nearby Bricin Island, and that Flapjaw knew of a hidden sea cave on the island which he believes would ultimately lead right into a well inside of the ruins Wendall was holed up in.

Finally free of Flapjaw, the party went to leave the tavern, but noticed that three shadowy figures had been watching them, and disappeared into the night once they were noticed. Using his excellent tracking skills Bob (Master of Puppets) was able to track down shadowy figures to a campsite in the forest, the figures spotted the party, and immediately attacked.

The battle proved difficult as whoever these men were, they were skilled assassins and one of them was an archer that could lay down volleys of arrows in a split second. Some of the party fell unconscious, but thanks to Doren launching into a surge of action and downing some of the assassins with a flurry of sword strikes, the party prevailed. Slaying two of the assassins, and capturing the archer.

Questioning the archer, he revealed that he was a mercenary in the service of Pitiless Wendall, and he seemed to not have much loyalty to Wendall. The party decided to take him as a captive as they headed for their ship and then to Bricin Island….